And Picard could well have become Commodore at that point, dramatically speaking. An officer of that rank commanding a prominent starship would fit Trek continuity, and it would restore the by that time already lost dynamic wherein Riker was the doer and Picard was the thinker. As "doing" now consisted mostly of sitting in the command chair and thinking up clever ways to make a bottle show look exciting (as opposed to doing heroic legwork on a silly planetside set), Riker would need the slight adjustment in position to remain a driving force.

They could have kept the XO vs Captain dynamic even if Riker were now the Captain and Picard were the resident flag officer there for the ride. All the better excuse to have Picard do all sorts of diplomatic meetings at the rate he did after "BoBW", while doing relatively little otherwise. But then we would have missed Picard's rebirth as the Action Captain, the Vash stuff and so forth.

I was under the impression that Starfleet eliminated the rank of Commodore either between the time of TOS and TNG, or early in TNG's timeframe. By the stage of Picard's career you're referencing, the rank of Commodore no longer existed.

And there is no reason that commodores don't exist... They could have put a 5th pip on Picard (of the little line thing they used on DS9 for Deputy Director) to show that he still carries a senior rank.

Riker didn't want a command because it would mean hanging around the bridge. Look at what happened to Janeway...

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That's an interesting notion, that Riker desired to remain a commander for much the same reason that Kirk wished to remain a captain. By TNG's timeframe, the first officer led the away missions while the captain stayed on the bridge. That way, Riker gets to insist that Picard stays aboard the ship for "protection", while he goes down to all the planets and has some great adventures!

And there is no reason that commodores don't exist... They could have put a 5th pip on Picard (of the little line thing they used on DS9 for Deputy Director) to show that he still carries a senior rank.

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Yeah, the fifth pip thing has been a fan speculation for some time. Frankly, it would've made more sense for a commodore to have the four pips boxed, on just the one side of the collar and with the pips still silver, to show he isn't an admiral. As I recall, all the admirals had boxed golden pips on both sides of their collars. -- RR